Lady Desmond received the gallant Colonel with more than her usual suavity and grace; and he, notwithstanding his good nature, seemed more at ease than when alone with Kate, whose pale cheeks and tearful eyes forbade the gay badinage, which, truth to tell, formed Colonel Dashwood's principal stock in conversational trade, when Melton Mowbray and the moors, were not congenial topics. Lady Desmond, after the first moment of disappointment, felt the Colonel's visit to be a relief from her own stormy thoughts; and she entered fully into his light and lively conversation; while Kate, though silent, felt soothed and pleased, to have an old acquaintance thus restored to her, a sort of link with by-gone days, ever present to her. She sat near the window copying some manuscript music, for her cousin, to which she had taken a fancy, but oftener resting her head on her hand, half listening, half thinking. They were laughing at Colonel Dashwood's description of some adventure of his in Dublin; and he was looking very much at home, when Lord Effingham entered, unannounced; and, at the same moment, a vivid flash of lightning illuminated the apartment, which was gloomy as night. "I found your doors most hospitably open, Lady Desmond," said the Earl, advancing with his cool self-possession, "and meeting no one to oppose my progress, entered, with a flash of lightning, like the devil in Der Freyschutz." "I am glad you escaped the shower which is sure to follow," returned Lady Desmond, endeavouring to recover the double agitation, occasioned by the lightning and Lord Effingham's _entré_. "And now," he resumed, quite regardless of the thunder, which almost drowned his voice, and holding her hand, perhaps a moment longer than was strictly _selon les regles_, "now that you have, at last, permitted me to enter your presence, I must say, I see but little sign of the indisposition that banished your friends. Miss Vernon has been in league with you against us--I told her as much the other day--and she bristled up most indignantly; you must tell her I was right, and you were only fanciful, or--" "You hear Lord Effingham, Kate?" said Lady Desmond, gently. He turned and bowed to her, as if he now observed her for the first time, since his entrance; but his keen eye had noted each individual in the room, from the moment he crossed its threshold. Kate returned his salutation; and as she observed the transformation of Lady Desmond, from an unembarrassed talker, to a silent listener, absorbed in self-watchfulness and intense attention to every syllable that dropped from Lord Effingham's lips, she longed for Sabrina's power to free her from his unholy influence. "Lord Effingham, Colonel Dashwood," said Lady Desmond. The gentlemen bowed, and subsided into their respective seats.